Large crowds gathered to attend the funeral of the well-known journalist and editor, Lasantha Wickramatunga and protest against his assassination. Many participants wore black arm bands and scarves and in many other ways demonstrated their anger at this assassination and other similar incidents that have taken place in the country. At the funeral, speaker after speaker accused the government of this assassination and demanded immediate inquiries and the arrest of the culprits. The Honorable Ambassador for Germany spoke on behalf of the diplomatic community in Colombo and also called on the government for inquiries and prosecution of the offenders. Many media interviews, including those aired by the BBC Sinhala Service, also recorded the same demands for immediate inquiries and the halting of such assassinations.
In any rule of law system stopping assassinations is achieved through prompt, efficient and credible inquiries into any such crime. For quite some time now in Sri Lanka inquiries into politically sensitive matters have turned out to be bogus, lacking seriousness and any will to uncover the crime. The conduct of bogus investigations itself is an encouragement for similar occurrences as it sends a clear message to the would-be assassins that they may be assured that the crimes they are to commit will not be investigated in any credible manner.
The conduct of bogus inquiries is therefore, part of the scheme of the assassination itself. In this manner the components of an assassination consist of the selection of a target by someone in authority and then communicating the information to the assassins who are to carry out the design. The next stage is again done through sophisticated communication of messages to the police hierarchy to ensure that some play acting regarding the investigations should take place without the possibility of gathering any information that may lead to the discovery of the assassins. The next part of the assassination plan is to carry out an extensive propaganda campaign creating doubts and confusion about the possible culprits by references to international or political conspiracies to discredit the government and the like. Such propaganda work may be done by high ranking politicians and the messages can be carried through the antennas of the state media.
In the instance of the assassination of Lasantha Wickramatunga the funeral gathering was the largest in recent times. The coverage regarding the assassination in the local media, with the exception of the government media, was very high. The international calls for inquiries also came at the highest levels, such as from diplomats of the United States, Great Britain, Germany and other countries. The international media agencies and press also gave considerable publicity to the issue. The public opinion is clearly that the government should investigate this matter promptly, competently and credibly.
In this instance an entrenched government policy which fails to investigate assassinations and serious abuses of human rights and the local and international opinion calling for inquiries have clashed. The usual fabrication of evidence and creating of scapegoats is also unlikely to succeed in this instance.
In situations like this in India, the Indian courts have taken upon themselves the task of directly monitoring the investigations. The famous case relating to the Gujarat riots in 2002 is one such example. The court intervened against the neglect of the police and the attempt by the police, under the influence of powerful politicians, to subvert the inquiries. The court clearly stated that it is not the task of the court to be a passive observer when it is clear that the police are neglecting their duty to conduct inquiries in a credible manner. The court went so far as to dismiss an acquittal on the basis of contradictory statements of a witness who was subjected to intimidation and ordered a retrial. This case is known as the Best Bakery case. In a recent case in Kerala, where due to manipulations by the police a murder case was suppressed for almost 16 years, the High Court took upon itself to monitor the inquiries and make the orders it thought necessary for the conduct of proper inquiries. This is the famous case known as the Rev. Abhaya case.
The Indian Supreme Court intervened because it realised that due to high political pressure the police often fail to conduct proper inquiries and often pave the way for the acquittals of the suspects. This same problem exists in Sri Lanka and therefore there is complete justification for a Sri Lankan court to intervene in order to monitor the investigation into this assassination and to give the necessary directions to the police. As the case will be reported to a Magistrate’s Court, it is the duty of that Magistrate to scrutinise the inquiry reports and to give detailed orders for the conduct of the inquiry and on reports to court. Perhaps given the possibility of interference of the police by powerful politicians it would not be inappropriate for a higher court to intervene and give guidance on the way to break the deadlock into the inquiries into politically sensitive assassinations.
The public opinion that has come to be expressed so strongly must now try to deal with this entrenched habit of safeguarding assassins by the prevention of proper inquiries. If public opinion, locally and internationally expresses itself clearly to have a better intervention by the court to monitor the inquiry and to give the necessary orders to inquiring officers, perhaps the case of the assassination of Lasantha Wickramatunga might create a precedent to be followed in other cases. The local and international lobby must now concentrate its efforts in this issue.
Note: As there has been an inquiry into the background to the constitutional and legal crisis in Sri Lanka which has made incidents like the assassination of Lasantha Wickramatunga possible we are referring you to the chapter on the human rights situation in Sri Lanka in the Human Rights Report of the AHRC which may be found at the following link:
http://material.ahrchk.net/hrreport/2008/AHRC-SPR-017-2008-SriLanka_AHRR2008.pdf
You may also refer to the YouTube presentations on Sri Lanka by typing AHRCALRC into the search facility of YouTube.
